\[ **up: [[Civilisation and culture--Ancient--Germanic]] | [[Civilisation and culture--Medieval]]** | [[British Isles]]** ] --- # Anglo-Saxon civilisation and culture The Anglo-Saxons lived “in the British and Irish archipelagos during the early medieval period, AD 450–1100”.[^1] Alternatively: 400–1100 CE. [[“The early medieval period in England is defined as the six centuries from the cessation of central Roman imperial rule in AD 410 to the Norman Conquest of Anglo-Saxon England in 1066.”]][^2] --- > “We learn from Bede’s *history of the English Church and People*, written in the eighth century, that Angles, Saxons and Jutes settled in England in the fifth century.”[^3] > “The *Anglo-Saxon Chronicle*, complied in the ninth century, drawing on oral tradition and perhaps also on written annals as well as Bede’s work, has some details to add to the picture. We know in general terms that these people were Germanic, pagan and unlettered. Historians can reconstruct a good deal from the written sources about the political events of this period, the struggles for power between Anglo-Saxon and Briton, and between the invading tribes themselves.”[^4] > “Both place-name evidence and archaeological evidence imply that there must have been a good deal more intermingling of the races than the written records suggest, but it is clear too that we are primarily dealing with a pattern in which entire Anglo-Saxon families, not merely Anglo-Saxon warriors, emigrated to England and settled.”[^5] --- ## Everyday life in Anglo-Saxon England ### Women Although much can be reconstructed re. the settlement of England by the Angles and Saxons, it is “on the whole a matter of deduction and interpretation that women came over with these early invaders.”[^6] [[Anglo-Saxon women were “more nearly the equal companions of their husbands and brothers than at any other period before the modern age.”|“The evidence which has survived from Anglo-Saxon England indicates that women were then more nearly the equal companions of their husbands and brothers than at any other period before the modern age. In the higher ranges of society this rough and ready partnership was ended by the Norman Conquest, which introduced into England a military society relegating women to a position honourable but essentially unimportant. With all allowance for the efforts of individual churchmen to help individual women, it must be confessed that the teaching medieval Church reinforced the subjection which feudal law imposed on all wives.”]][^7] [[Throughout the Anglo-Saxon period, Christianity (while very much present) seemed to have little effect on creating a social dialogue re. the supposed inferiority of women.]][^8] > “Even Wulfstan in the eleventh century is denouncing sexual immorality in general, not women in particular.”[^9] --- #### Women in language [[“Old English 'mann' however can be equally used of women.”]][^10] ![[Pasted image 20250727175840.png]][^11] ![[Pasted image 20250727180004.png]][^12] [[“It is, however, obvious that for the Anglo-Saxons the word mann carried the primary sense ‘human being’ ... the terminology was not as in Modern English ‘men and women’ but weras and wifas or wepmen and wifmenn.”|“It is, however, obvious that for the Anglo-Saxons the word *mann* carried the primary sense ‘human being’ so clearly that it could be used without awkwardness of either sex, and that where it was necessary to distinguish the sexes the terminology was not as in Modern English ‘men and women’ but *weras and wifas* or *wepmen and wifmenn*.”]][^13] --- #### Women in law & legislation [[“Early Celtic law shows women a far less favourable position than Anglo-Saxon law.”]][^14] [[“The money that the prospective husband must pay is the ... ‘morning-gift’. This could be a very substantial amount in money and land, and it is paid not to the father or kin, but to the woman herself.”|“As far as marriage is concerned the financial aspects are made quite clear in law and in charter.”]][^15] ##### Marriage A marriage had to be “agreeable” to the Anglo-Saxon woman, not merely her kin.[^16] Women were not to be held liable for (or punished because of) their husband’s crimes—not unless the wife was also in on it.[^17] In Cnut 76, the woman is not guilty of stolen goods found in her home (since she cannot stop her husband placing what he wants in what is also his own home) unless the stolen goods are found in “one of the three places for which she holds the keys”—something like the store-room, the large chest, and the little box for holding jewellery or tiny precious things.[^18] Women wore “girdle-hangers”, which have no practical use, and therefore “the most obvious interpretation is that they represent economic control of the household.”[^19] ##### Possession of property [[“The money that the prospective husband must pay is the ... ‘morning-gift’. This could be a very substantial amount in money and land, and it is paid not to the father or kin, but to the woman herself.”]][^20] [[It “is to the greatest importance that the fair sex should possess high estimation in society … nothing could more certainly tend to perpetuate this feeling, than the privilege of possessing property in their own right, and at their own disposal.”|“Nothing could be more calculated to produce a very striking dissimilarity, between the Gothic [i.e. Germanic] nations and the Oriental states, than this exaltation of the female sex to that honour, consequence and independence, which European laws studied to uphold … and nothing could more certainly tend to perpetuate this feeling, than the privilege of possessing property in their own right, and at their own disposal.”]][^21] --- ### Language > “The written evidence for the Anglo-Saxon period divides into two languages and two alphabets, though there is not a great deal of useful text and material written in the runic alphabet. Anglo-Saxon Latin texts occur throughout the period, starting with Bede’s eighth-century history and ending, perhaps, with the Latin of the Norman scribes who, in producing the Domesday survey for William the Bastard are giving us material from the very end of Anglo-Saxon England.”[^22] ##### External resources - [Learning Old English: The Anglo-Saxons, and their alphabet](https://liamslanguagejournal.wordpress.com/2015/12/08/learning-old-english-the-anglo-saxons-and-their-alphabet/) --- ### Calendar - [[Winter Solstice]] - [[Modranect (Anglo-Saxon feast)]] — first day of the Anglo-Saxon year.[^23] --- ### Religious beliefs > The earliest Anglo-Saxons were non-Christian. Although [[Christianity]] had been practiced in southern [[Britain]] during the Roman period it did not continue widely after the Roman administration left.[^24] #### Anglo-Saxon paganism > “In order to form any kind of impression about the paganism of Anglo-Saxons in general and Anglo-Saxon women in particular we have to collect together a range of haphazard and often enigmatic references. It is not easy to formulate these into a coherent picture, nor to know how far we are entitled to interpret such evidence as we have.”[^25] ##### Anglo-Saxon deities - [[Woden (Old English deity)]] - [[Thunor (Anglo-Saxon deity)]] - [[Tiw (Anglo-Saxon deity)]] - [[Frig (Anglo-Saxon deity)]] - [[Eostre (Anglo-Saxon deity)]] - [[Nerthus (Germanic deity)]] (N.B. inferred but probable) - [[Hreda (Anglo-Saxon deity)]] (N.B. considered less probable) + [[Weirding]] [[The “notion of female supernatural beings who mark or select the dead may have been an important one in Anglo-Saxon belief.”]][^26] #### Anglo-Saxon Christianity > Later the Anglo-Saxons did convert to Christianity from the 7th century, as a result of missionaries from Ireland and Rome, and eventually adopted Roman practice as the standard from the late 7th century after the Synod of Whitby in 664.[^27] [[The Anglo-Saxon penitential is “the first formulation in England of a system of Christian penance and punishment for sin ... but in fact represents a system of codification already formulated in the country of origin.”]][^28] --- ## ↬ External resources - [Ða Engliscan Gesiðas (The English Companions)](https://www.tha-engliscan-gesithas.org.uk/) - A society for all those interested in the history and culture of Anglo-Saxon England, including language and literature, archaeology, anthropology, architecture, art, religion, mythology, folklore and material culture. [^1]: Alexandra Lester-Makin, *[[Lester-Makin. 'The Lost Art of the Anglo-Saxon World_ The Sacred and Secular Power of Embroidery', 2019.|The Lost Art of the Anglo-Saxon World: The Sacred and Secular Power of Embroidery]]* (Oxbow Books, 2019), chapter 1. [^2]: Alexandra Lester-Makin, *[[Lester-Makin. 'The Lost Art of the Anglo-Saxon World_ The Sacred and Secular Power of Embroidery', 2019.|The Lost Art of the Anglo-Saxon World: The Sacred and Secular Power of Embroidery]]* (Oxbow Books, 2019), chapter 1. [^3]: Christine Fell, *[[Fell, Clark & Williams. 'Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066',|Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066]]* (Colonnade, 1984), p. 22. [^4]: Christine Fell, *[[Fell, Clark & Williams. 'Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066',|Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066]]* (Colonnade, 1984), p. 22. [^5]: Christine Fell, *[[Fell, Clark & Williams. 'Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066',|Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066]]* (Colonnade, 1984), p. 22. [^6]: Christine Fell, *[[Fell, Clark & Williams. 'Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066',|Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066]]* (Colonnade, 1984), p. 22. [^7]: Doris Strenton (1956), quoted in Christine Fell, *[[Fell, Clark & Williams. 'Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066',|Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066]]* (Colonnade, 1984), p. 13. [^8]: Christine Fell, *[[Fell, Clark & Williams. 'Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066',|Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066]]* (Colonnade, 1984), p. 13. [^9]: Christine Fell, *[[Fell, Clark & Williams. 'Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066',|Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066]]* (Colonnade, 1984), p. 13. [^10]: Christine Fell, *[[Fell, Clark & Williams. 'Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066',|Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066]]* (Colonnade, 1984), p. 17. [^11]: Christine Fell, *[[Fell, Clark & Williams. 'Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066',|Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066]]* (Colonnade, 1984), p. 17. [^12]: Christine Fell, *[[Fell, Clark & Williams. 'Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066',|Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066]]* (Colonnade, 1984), p. 17. [^13]: Christine Fell, *[[Fell, Clark & Williams. 'Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066',|Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066]]* (Colonnade, 1984), p. 19. [^14]: Christine Fell, *[[Fell, Clark & Williams. 'Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066',|Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066]]* (Colonnade, 1984), p. 11. [^15]: Christine Fell, *[[Fell, Clark & Williams. 'Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066',|Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066]]* (Colonnade, 1984), p. 56. [^16]: Christine Fell, *[[Fell, Clark & Williams. 'Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066',|Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066]]* (Colonnade, 1984), p. 58. [^17]: Christine Fell, *[[Fell, Clark & Williams. 'Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066',|Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066]]* (Colonnade, 1984), p. 59. [^18]: Christine Fell, *[[Fell, Clark & Williams. 'Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066',|Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066]]* (Colonnade, 1984), p. 59. [^19]: Christine Fell, *[[Fell, Clark & Williams. 'Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066',|Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066]]* (Colonnade, 1984), p. 60. [^20]: Christine Fell, *[[Fell, Clark & Williams. 'Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066',|Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066]]* (Colonnade, 1984), pp. 56–57. [^21]: Sharon Turner (c. 1800), quoted in Christine Fell, *[[Fell, Clark & Williams. 'Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066',|Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066]]* (Colonnade, 1984), p. 7. [^22]: Christine Fell, *[[Fell, Clark & Williams. 'Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066',|Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066]]* (Colonnade, 1984), p. 19. [^23]: Max Dashu, [[Dashu. 'Witches and Pagans_ Women in European Folk Religion, 700-1100', 2017.|Witches and Pagans: Women in European Folk Religion, 700-1100]] (Veleda Press, 2017), p. 14. [^24]: ‘Anglo-Saxon Beliefs’, *[[Ða Engliscan Gesiðas. ‘Tha Engliscan Gesithas’, n.d.|Ða Engliscan Gesiðas]]*, accessed 25 March 2025, https://www.tha-engliscan-gesithas.org.uk/anglo-saxon-beliefs/. [^25]: Christine Fell, *[[Fell, Clark & Williams. 'Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066',|Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066]]* (Colonnade, 1984), p. 23. [^26]: Noel Williams, quoted in Max Dashu, *[[Dashu. 'Witches and Pagans_ Women in European Folk Religion, 700-1100', 2017.|Witches and Pagans: Women in European Folk Religion, 700-1100]]* (Veleda Press, 2017), p. 12. [^27]: ‘Anglo-Saxon Beliefs’, *[[Ða Engliscan Gesiðas. ‘Tha Engliscan Gesithas’, n.d.|Ða Engliscan Gesiðas]]*, accessed 25 March 2025, https://www.tha-engliscan-gesithas.org.uk/anglo-saxon-beliefs/. [^28]: Christine Fell, *[[Fell, Clark & Williams. 'Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066',|Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066]]* (Colonnade, 1984), p. 20.